There should be no such thing as a veggie ‘burger’, the European Parliament (EP) says.

It’s voted that the use of words like ‘burger’, ‘steak’ and ‘escalope’ on the labels of vegetarian and vegan products should be banned in the 27 countries of the European Union (EU).

It’s argued that this will help meat and dairy farmers, who claim that labelling veggie products with meaty words is harmful to their businesses.

The plan won’t become law unless it gets approved by the European Commission and the governments of each EU country, but Friedrich Merz, the German chancellor, supports the idea. He said: “A sausage is a sausage. Sausage isn’t vegan.”

Politicians from green parties said that the EP should be debating more important things, and other critics said that it was a setback for sustainable, meat-free diets. Big companies like Aldi, Lidl and Burger King have also written a joint letter to complain that banning the use of “familiar terms” would make it harder for customers to make “informed decisions”.

The EU has already banned the use of words like ‘milk’ and ‘cheese’ on dairy-free products. In its member countries, oat milk must be labelled ‘oat drink’, instead.